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The Sorceress in the Cellar
The following game was an improvised adventure run by Ewan Taylor, and played by Francis (sorcerer) Hayley (witch) Cohen (monk) and Liam (rogue) The Sorceress in the Cellar During the preparation for the coming siege, all adventurers of grey had been summoned to the city for compulsory service and given tasks. One of these tasks was given to the adventurers Raylise Dawnwisper, Saassraa Wyrmbreath, Character and Character. The four heroes were selected for their ability to deal with tasks other than simple combat, and given a scroll by an extremely hurried Alastair Goodman. The scroll explained that the Keep food stockpile has been becoming increasingly depleted and with the siege imminent, any possible risk to the city must be immediately investigated. The scroll also stated that they had permission to commence summary justice upon the culprits if necessary. The four were then taken to the silo by the keep quartermaster and encouraged to examine its three levels for any trace of foul play. The group descended into the first level below ground and explored. In one of the stockpile partitions, the group found a golden brooch hidden by a covering of dust and its position between two crates. The brooch had the emblem of a noble house, but none of the group recognised it beyond the fact that it was not native to Grey. The party also noted that brooches do not simply fall off, and so something must have happened to leave it here. In the second level below ground, the party explored further. The group took close note of the dust formation and making liberal attempts to detect magic. After discovering that only the grain was being taken and the water was being left behind, Character discovered a barrel of water that was discoloured slightly. Further investigation revealed that it was discoloured by blood, the dried stains of which could be found in and around the barrel. Where the other floors had been partitioned into several sections, the lowest floor of the stockpile was an open circular room, carved into the stone of the earth. While searching through the aisles of crates and barrels, the group eventually discovered a leaking barrel from which water was beginning to pool. However the pool was only small, as most of the water was flowing through grooves in the floor towards the south-east wall, where it fell through a slim crack in the seam between the wall and floor, about 40 centimetres wide and 4 centimetres tall at its tallest. Looking through the crack, Saassraa could see a thin tunnel which continually widened as it continued, and discerned an echo which implied a larger cave system on the other side, as well as the faint smell of sulphurous brimstone. With the entirety of the cellars searched, the party spent some time ruminating on their best course of action. They questioned the quartermaster on details, who revealed that while no commissioned guards had gone missing or noted any strange activity, he had been unable to keep track of all of the conscript soldiers under his command. When showed the golden brooch, the quartermaster took the party to a courtier, who was instructed to identify its specific noble sigil. The courtier revealed that the sigil belonged to the noble House Varo , specifically the old branch of the family hailing from Gras-Loond and not the branch of the family that had settled in Tsar-Loond. The courtier also noted that the family were famed for their red hair, something which might make one of them easy to spot. With this news in tow, the group were uncertain of what their next move should be. They considered putting out word with their contacts to keep an eye out for any Varo nobles, but thought better of it due to the risk of alerting the possible culprits. Raylise attempted to scry on the owner of the blood in the barrel, but only saw a vague manikin-like figure before the spell failed. She even considered risking the use of the venom of her oracle's serpent before the group finally decided to attempt to spring a trap. All previous attempts to trap the thief had been a failure, and the thefts occurred at seemingly random times, with no predictable pattern and no regard for the schedules of the guards. Therefore they attempted to lure in the thief by having the quartermaster spread a rumour that a thief had been caught and the stockpile had been refilled. The party set up on the lowest floor that night and laid in wait for the thief to fall for their ruse and be lured back. The plan was a success; a mysterious smoke billowed through the crack in the floor and solidified into an attractive woman of striking red hair, who appeared to be nearly middle aged. The woman was wielding wand and was laden with dozens of potions, scrolls, charms and superstitious baubles, revealing her to be some sort of spellcaster. Saassraa magically lit the room and called out accusations to the mystery woman who responded by sending Saassraa into a cursed fit of laughter. Character took the element of surprise and stealthily attacked the woman, rendering her open to being grappled and held by Character. The woman attempted escape, and after failing admitted her guilt. She revealed that she was named Melissa Varo, and that she believed the city of Grey was hers to claim due to the supposed illegitimacy of its current rulers. She continued that she was contacted by the demon Karahktus on behalf of the approaching army and told that she would be given the right to rule the city on his behalf if she aided him in capturing it. She was totally unapologetic for working with demons, claiming that she would outsmart them in the end and that the attempts of the churches to supress trafficking with demons were a conspiracy. Melissa Varo had been sneaking in as often as she could acquire the potions necessary to do so, and had been using scrolls given to her by Karahktus to summon Dretches who would carry out the supplies. She was brought before the quartermaster who expressed a keen desire to see her tortured horribly for her 'treason' as he put it. Oddly, Raylise and Character noticed that the quartermaster seemed to recognise Melissa, but attempted to act as though he did not. And through it all, many things about the mystery don’t add up. How exactly did Melissa loose her brooch? Was the blood in the barrel that of a conscript as Melissa claimed or someone else’s? Where exactly did the fissure in the lowest floor lead? How did it so conveniently manage to be there? And perhaps most importantly, how exactly did the quartermaster recognise Melissa Varo? The players each received 900 XP for this adventure before any deductions due to not having run any games recently. The party also received: *3 potions of cure minor wounds *3 diluted potions of gaseous form (lasts 1d2+1 rounds) *1 wand of magic missile (number of charges left unknown) *1 amulet of protection that provides an effect identical to mage armour. *4 scrolls containing the true names of several dretches. Each scroll can be read aloud by anyone to summon 2d4 dretches which are not bound by summoning magic and do not need to obey the summoner. *A large collection of superstitious charms and tokens which do not seem to be magical, but might be valuable or otherwise useful Category:Quests